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Old Greyhound Bus Station (Jackson, Mississippi)

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Coordinates: 32°18′06.6″N 90°11′08.2″W / 32.301833°N 90.185611°W / 32.301833; -90.185611
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Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
Greyhound Bus Station, Jackson Mississippi, December 1939 (MDAH photo)
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station is located in Mississippi
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
Location in Mississippi
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station is located in the United States
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
Jackson Greyhound Bus Station
Location in United States
Location219 N. Lamar St., Jackson, Mississippi
Coordinates32°18′06.6″N 90°11′08.2″W / 32.301833°N 90.185611°W / 32.301833; -90.185611
Built1938
ArchitectW.S. Arrasmith or Mahan & Van Powell
Architectural styleStreamline moderne
Restored1989
Restored byRobert Parker Adams
Part ofFarish Street Neighborhood Historic District (ID80002245)
Designated CPMarch 13, 1980

The Greyhound Bus Station at 219 N. Lamar St., Jackson, Mississippi, was the site of many arrests during the May 1961 Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement. The Art Deco building has been preserved and currently functions as an architect's office.

Construction

In 1937, Greyhound Lines contracted for a new bus station in Jackson, Mississippi. Incorporating a streamlined style and vertical, illuminated "Greyhound" marquee, it is unique for its structural glass exterior. When operating as a bus station, the building included a coffeeshop and bathing facilities. [1] Sources differ on whether the station is the work of W.S. Arrasmith[1] or George Mahan Jr. and Nowland Van Powell of Memphis, Tennessee.[2]

Freedom Ride to Jackson, Mississippi

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States, in 1961 and subsequent years, to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions which had ruled segregated public buses to be unconstitutional.

Jackson, Mississippi was planned as a stop on the Freedom Rides of May 1961. On May 28 that year, nine Freedom Riders arrived at the Greyhound Bus Station. Other groups had arrived four days earlier. Upon arrival, riders would seek access to facilities denied to non-whites, such as waiting areas designated "Whites Only." During the next four months, 329 people were arrested in the town, half of them black and half of them white, with a quarter being women.[1] Part of the Freedom Riders' strategy was to overwhelm Jackson city jails by refusing bail. When Jackson's jails were full of riders arrested at Trailways and Greyhound facilities, Freedom Riders were transferred to Parchman penitentiary.[3]

Preservation

Located within the southeast boundary of the Farish Street Neighborhood Historic District, the building was acquired by architect Robert Parker Adams in 1988 whose firm restored the station's exterior and interior.[4] The state of Mississippi has placed an explanatory marker on the site.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Greyhound Bus Station Historical Marker". Retrieved 4 April 2018. The Jackson station was built from 1937-1938. This is the only station that William Strudwick Arrasmith designed with a structural glass faced exterior. Originally, the interior had a coffee shop with a horseshoe-shaped counter. The men's room had a shower, while the women's room had a bath tub.
  2. ^ "Greyhound Bus Station, December 22, 1939". Flickr. Retrieved 5 April 2018. George Mahan Jr. - Nowland Van Powell Architects, Memphis Tenn.
  3. ^ Arsenault, Raymond (2006). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford University Press. p. 325. ISBN 9780199755813.
  4. ^ "Tour "The Dog"". www.robertparkeradams.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  5. ^ "Civil Rights: The Mississippi Freedom Trail". Visit Mississippi. 14 September 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
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